Breathing through the Whole Body: The Buddha's Instructions on Integrating Mind, Body, and Breath

If you are convinced -as the rest of us mistakenly are- that breathing is just that -breathing? Then please reconsider the meanings of being "cured" as opposed to what "healing" means. One, is a dot on the map. The other? A line. This book will now remain in this household until the day I experience my last and final exhale. Peacefully, and unafraid of what may come next.

This book maps a powerful journey deep into the body (not just on the surface) for meditators and others involved in body awareness work. I liked the way it integrated mindfulness of breathing and integrated this consciousness into deeper body awareness, deep inside the body, and how this is a key to deep relaxation.One thing i did not like very much, though, was Will Johnson's much too concentrated focus on breathing...almost a fixation. I did not see where he encourages the practice of loosening the focus on breath, mixing it with space, so to incorporate the all-important awareness of space (interior & exterior) and the wonderfully liberating meditation experience of spaciousness and nonattachment.Perhaps the author's training in Rolfing biased him toward this fixation, although in some ways i found appreciation even in his fixation because we need this body awareness practice so much in order to overcome our own fixation on "disembodied mind."

Will is a thoroughly authentic being. I have met him, and will soon be doing an 8-day workshop with him. I am 67, and have studied and practiced body-mind stuff all my life, currently I teach and do research in the field. All Will's books are at the top of my list for depth, genuineness and usefulness. I would honestly say that both rank beginners and advanced meditators would get value from this book. A blessing if as a beginner you come across it!No ego-trips, no dogma, very simple and profound clarity of instruction. His background in Rolfing and his acquaintance with many spiritual traditions enables him to approach his subject with a full-roundedness that is rate. Look at his other books too--he has some of the best instruction on meditation posture anywhere, and amazing insights into Rumi's "Gazing" practice.

The benefits and inner transformation brought about by meditating have been well documented. In fact, even if we do not personally meditate, we would all probably agree that meditation is a good thing to do for both the soul and for the body. Yet despite all the many thousands of books written on meditation, few of us have actually studied what the Buddha wrote about this process, some two thousand five hundred years ago.Most of us probably know that the Buddha asked us to sit still, close the eyes, and clear the mind. But few of us have actually studied the sutta where the Buddha gave us this teaching. The key to understanding exactly what the Buddha meant by stillness has been examined by author Will Johnson. He explains how stillness in meditation is not meant to be simply a rigid or frozen body, but rather a still mind. The author examines the Buddha's own words at the core of the famous Satipatthana Sutta, which states: "As you breathe in, breathe in through the whole body; as you breathe out, breath out through the whole body."This explanation has often been overlooked by many meditation schools, says Will Johnson who has explored, in depth, the complete series of steps for deepening the awareness of breath. He explains how to invite natural, responsive movement back into the posture of meditation by extending breath awareness beyond the nostrils, lungs and abdomen to include the entire body. This practice unifies the breath, mind and body and takes the meditator into a profound phenomenon of deep meditation.This book studies this method and explains how the flow of breath is directly affected by chronic tensions in the body and in the mind. He explains that when breath starts flowing through more and more parts of the body it becomes a direct agent of healing as it massages and dissolves any area of tension, either physical or emotion. By breathing through the whole body in accordance with the Buddha's instructions, the body becomes more comfortable, the mind resolves its addiction of constant thinking and meditative practice deepens much more rapidly. This process then allows the teachings of the Buddha to be revealed and, perhaps most importantly, experienced.Students of Zen Buddhism will be familiar with koans which are seeming riddles that help break the mind of certain loops and patterns that imprison it in past pain patterns. It is said that most of what the Buddha said sounds more like a koan rather than simple instructions. In the Rinzai school of Zen Buddhism meditators spend long hours focusing their minds on essential alogical statements or stories called koans. The famous "Satipatthana Sutta are very much like a koan," writes the author, "except that we need to figure out this puzzle not with our mind, but through the feeling awareness of our body."Just as no one can provide you with the answer to a Zen koan, no one can show you definitively how to breathe through the whole body. You have to work this out on your own, with your own body.Of course the trap can be, and is for some, that we get stuck in process and the methodology becomes the goal instead of the way. As the author writes, "breathe is just the means. The real goal of the practice is to experience what happens to you, your mind, your sense of self, your understanding of incarnation, when you explore the possibility of breathing through your whole body."The purpose of Buddhist practices is not to perfect certain techniques but to find out who you are beyond the body, and beyond these breathe practices. Ordinarily our minds rule us, and our breath with the body stumbling along behind, he writes, but "how different it would be if we gave our breath and body precedence and let our mind align itself with them!"Sometimes in our zeal to find the answers to life's questions we can assume that because we live in a complex world, that the answer to our life-question must be equally complex. Of course, the great teachers, particularly including the Buddha reminded us that it is the ego that is complex while the truth remains simple and pure. The simple instructions and profound insights in this book are invaluable to the serious student of personal transformation. I have no hesitation in recommending this book, and in fact urge anyone wishing to delve deeply into their own psyche to study these words. It is a small book, a mere 82 pages, as is appropriate for the subject-matter. However, as with all profound works, it is a pure gem and certainly a treasure on my humble bookshelf.Author Will Johnson is the founder and director of the Institute for Embodiment Training, which combines somatic psychotherapy with eastern meditation practices. He is also the author of The Posture of Meditation and The Spiritual Practices of Rumi.

Having read and studied many books and many approaches to breathing, I found this to be the clearest and most accessible I have found. The writing is so good it borders on the lyrical. From the first page I found myself relaxing into my breath. I am not a practicing Buddhist and that doesn't matter. Will Johnson has taken a passage attributed to the Buddha and built a masterwork around it. Thoroughly recommended for those looking to relax into their breathing and preserve, if not generate, a little energy.

This took me to the next step in mindful meditation. Beyond the exercises recommended in earlier videos I had watched and listened to by by Jon Kabat-Zinn , Jack Kornfield and others. It just seemed to bring the practices of posture and breathing exercises to a higher level of understanding. It's all good but this really helped me. I have ordered additional copies as a gift for my Qigong students

For anyone but a pure beginner, there is nothing to learn from this book. There are a few bullet points worth of basic pointers (i.e keep your back straight, relax, put your awareness in you body) and 80 pages of blank filler.It doesn't explicate Buddhist texts or offer anything insightful, challenging, or inspiring. Frankly, it's just a bad book.

Book was protected showing respect to my purchase, and book arrived at early side of estimated delivery window. Thoughtful seller. Five stars.

good read

„Breathing through the whole body” by Will Johnson is very Short Book (Not a Problem in itself), yet still 30+ Pages feel like pure fluff. This at times got cringe-worthy as he uses the same beaten to death phrases over and over again, without adding anything new in the process. At times I wasn’t sure if I accidentally opened on a prior page I had already read...(My review might seem lengthy for a book this short, but my intention is to leave you more informed as I regretted the purchase and would like to help you make a more informed decision).A theme that seems to reoccur with this author (this was my first book by him, will probably be my last): he takes some piece of spiritual source text, in this case the satipatthana sutta, and then reads his own views into that, using the source as proof for his line of thinking.That is not to say that he doesn’t have good ideas. Towards the end, you’ll find some instructions on, basically, mindful breathing techniques. Nothing special either though.He invites the reader to reconnect with their body and not become too heady in their meditation. He criticizes what he calls our somatophobic culture.Whether or not these instructions will be of value will depend on which flavor of meditation you practice, how invested you are in that practice, whether or not you can make additional practice time to incorporate some of the author’s ideas in separate sessions etc.I personally felt that the ideas mainly fall into two categories:- feeling the ‘inner body’, to use that term by Eckhart Tolle.- creating some movement along the spine coupled with the breath while doing sitting meditationThe spinal movement instructions culminate in his instructions on “breath of the unfolding fern” and “rocking the pelvis. This creates continuous spinal waves either bottom-up or top-down.The spinal wave is a valuable movement and best learned away from the cushion, standing up, first. If you have the chance to practice in person with Shai Faran, Ido Portal or one of his students - there you go.We are often told by meditation teachers that our meditation shouldn’t end once the bell sounds and we leave the cushion. Will Johnson criticizes the ‘somatophobic’ culture and gives a little instruction on becoming more embodied on the cushion. That might be a good idea and helpful to you. But in this case I miss his urge to take that into your life OFF the cushion.That needn’t be yoga asana (definitely no panacea!) or qigong (but it could be); it could be a full fledged exploration of movement along the lines of Ido Portal. It could be gymnastic strength training, bouldering, Parkour, dance, jiu-jitsu, climbing trees or whatever other flavor of movement you enjoy that you can bring mindful intention to. Daily stretching, following your body’s cues is highly underrated (check out Stretch Therapy if you don’t know a lot about stretching. If you’re in shape,I‘d recommend a Fighting Monkey workshop with Jozef Frucek and Linda Kapetanea. You’ll learn a lot more about arranging your three body weight centers than from this little pamphlet.Mens sana in corpore sanum.

One of the best books I have read on breathing. Concept is revolutionary. If practiced on the basis of techniques given in the book, it may be life changing. One will be completely relieved of the tress and tension of [email protected] Biswas

This is an extraordinary little book that can be read for the first time in just an hour or two. I began using a pencil to underline the wonderful advice provided by the author only to find, at the end of my reading the entire text, that I had underlined almost every passage in the book - every sentence, every word, every comma, full-stop is so incredibly valuable and makes this text utterly unique. The reading of it is a meditation in itself: soothing, calming and reenergising. A must read for anyone who wishes to move beyond the basic advice given at your weekly Buddhist medication class.

I loved this book. Though designed more to foster seated meditation practice (of any school or style), one of the many things I love about it is how it dovetails with my qigong and tai chi practice, with the sense of bringing the body into meditation instead of trying to shut it out and how it fosters both the practical benefits of complete breathing with the whole being and the sense of being part of a universal energy flow rather than a solid lump. I was never able to meditate (and believe me, I tried for decades) until I took up the Chinese standing meditation, zhan zhuang, which was initally presented as fitness practice, with virtually no mention of meditation, so being able to meditate snuck up on me. The sense of release I've found from this book has been profound and informs my three main (almost) daily practices of shibashi, lohan, zhan zhuang. I'm sure Breathing through the Whole Body will remain a source of inspiration for the rest of my life.